1mo ago

Mosaic Me

43 comments

I love this. It's so true of me.
I eat phó because I had a shitty Vietnamese roommate who's cool mom would make it for me from scratch. I make black beans with half a Buddweiser mixed in because it's how my Cuban great grandma, grandma, and mom did it. I make corn tortillas from scratch because my Mexican girlfriend said store-bought is for lazy people. I go to tourist traps where I live because a girl I drove 3000 miles for who said, "never stop being a tourist in your own city."
My life is just this layered dozens of times.
- How do you make corn tortillas? Do you have a specific recipe you can recommend?
  
  Get your tortilla flour of choice. I buy Maseca Blue, but have had good success with others.
  5 parts flour, 4 parts water.
  I usually do a cup of flour and eyeball 80% of a cup water leaning on the light side. Mix and feel the texture. I like it to be wetter, feeling like clay after mixing. I look for large cracks, not sandy breakup.
  I know this is all conceptual, but cooking be that way sometimes.
  You can get a cast iron or wood tortilla press for under 15 bucks at your local thrift store. If not, roll them or press between pans, I guess.
  Some people use plastic between the press to prevent sticking. After doing this a few years, I prefer parchment paper. Don't throw it out between uses, it gets better every time.
  Heat a comal or cast iron pan. No oil. NO OIL. flip it into the pan and don't fuck up. If it folds on landing, scrap it. It's toast, literally. Learning this is the hardest part.
  This is your lesson here. Bayless, despite being a gringo, is the man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JBHQS-DEbI
  
  Thank you very much! I’m going to give this a shot!
  
  Let me know how it goes when you make them.

43 comments